The concept of fun at workplace is not uncommon in strategic human resource development. Most human resource managers concur that employees’ productivity can be improved if fun is incorporated at the workplace environment. However, the impacts of having fun at workplace still lack thorough empirical or theoretical study and conclusive findings that can be applied by managers across the board (Catherine, Lottie, & Jeremy, 2014). For instance, there is no certainty on how the morale and productivity of employees can be enhanced through fun at work. Even some past studies lack clear correlation between fun and productivity at workplace environments (Decker, 2012). Worse still, the definition and practicability of fun at workplace are hardly valued by some organizations (Owler, Morrison, & Plester, 2010).
For a fact, the component characteristics of fun at workplace should be clearly understood by the respective human resource management teams before being executed (Hazelton, 2014). Organizations that fail to realize the benefits of workplace fun among employees often lack the best strategies on how to leverage on the individual abilities of workers.
While some managers may think that employees are already having adequate fun at workplace, it might not be the case at all (Tews, Michel, Xu, & Drost, 2015). There are organizations that rely on past theoretical findings that do not have any bearing on employees at hand. For optimum fun and productivity of employees, management teams should not use perceptions to gauge reality on the ground (Bolland & Lopes, 2014).
In addition, some organizational cultures do not define what constitutes work environment fun. As a consequence, human resource managers find it quite challenging to integrate fun among employees due to the restrictive cultures and over-relying on academic literatures (Russo, 2010). Nonetheless, employees may misconstrue fun to mean playfulness and absence of professionalism. In some cases, frequency of employee errors may be higher when fun is poorly applied (Vijay & Vazirani, 2011).
References
Bolland, E. & Lopes, C. (2014). Generations and Work. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Catherine, G., Lottie, C., & Jeremy, M. (2014). Sustainable cultures: Engaging employees in creating more sustainable workplaces and work styles. Facilities, 32(8), 438-454.
Decker, W. H. (2012). Unauthorized Fun at Work (Goofing Off): Predictors and Implications. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(5), 1-7.
Hazelton, S. (2014). Positive emotions boost employee engagement: Making work fun brings individual and organizational success. Human Resource Management International Digest, 22-(1), 34-37.
Owler, K., Morrison, R., & Plester, B. (2010). Does fun work? The complexity of promoting fun at work. Journal of Management and Organization, 16(3), 338-352.
Russo, D. (2010). Making Room for Fun in the Workplace. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
Tews, M. J., Michel, J., Xu, S., & Drost, A. J. (2015). Workplace fun matters… but what else? Employee Relations, 37(2), 248.
Vijay, M., & Vazirani, N. (2011). Emerging paradigm – fun in workplace to alleviate stress. SIES Journal of Management, 7(2), 24-30.